Amid the intense gun battles, the lack of food and medicine that teeters on becoming a humanitarian crisis — there is one bright light. And that's at the Donetsk Opera House, where cast and crew still put on performances and audiences still attend.

She remembers the Donetsk airport when it was a sad Soviet-era fixture. And when it was transformed, reimagined, for a 2012 European soccer tourney. Now it is rubble in fighting in eastern Ukraine, and she realizes " how little time it takes to destroy something which has been so painstakingly built."

It's been exactly a year since the first demonstration in Maidan Square in downtown Kiev. That protest led to a revolution in Ukraine, civil war and partial Russian occupation. Families have been torn apart. And it has left Ukrainians with mixed feelings.

The parliament in Kiev has approved an autonomy deal for Ukraine's pro-Russian east, accompanied by a limited amnesty for rebels there. But in Donetsk, shelling continues despite a ceasefire. And rebels say Kiev is just too late in making concessions.

Ukrainian government forces are on the attack close to where Malaysia Airlines flight 17 came down almost two weeks ago. They're trying to surround the key rebel city of Donetsk, but they may prevent efforts to retrieve the remaining bodies and wreckage in the process.

Ukrainian forces scored major tactical victories this weekend against pro-Russian rebels. Ukraine's military appears to be gaining the upper hand against the separatists, according to a BBC reporter, who suspects the end result of the conflict will be a more nationalist and anti-Russian Ukraine.

With thousands of separatist groups vying for power in eastern Ukraine, many people in the region are not planning to participate in Ukraine's national elections this weekend. And that could hurt the legitimacy of the results.

Neighbors in eastern Ukraine are splitting between those who support Ukraine's government and separatists who want to join with Russia. And if you listen carefully to the insults they are hurling back and forth, you can hear the echoes of history.

In the Ukraine, politicians admit that the courts only protect the people in power. Lose an election and you could go to jail. That's just one of the more surprising revelations in a new documentary that examines life in Ukraine through the lens of its successful and popular soccer team, Chelsea, which plays in Donetsk.

Pro-Russian militants appear to be consolidating their control over towns and cities across the Ukrainian province of Donetsk. Threats of Ukrainian military action failed to materialize. Ukraine says Russia is behind the unrest, and says Moscow has sent in troops without insignia, just as they did in Crimea last month.

No one says they want war in Ukraine. But just look on the ground, in the country's east especially, where tensions keep rising. Ukrainian troops have been deployed in the east to recapture areas seized by pro-Russia separatists. But in one town, they were blocked by civilians -- and even appeared to lose some of their armored vehicles to the other side. And in the regional capital, Donetsk, pro-Russia gunmen took over the mayor's office.

Ukraine says three people died Wednesday night in the eastern city of Mariupol. The Ukrainians say a pro-Russian mob tried to storm a National Guard base. The violence capped a humiliating day for the Ukrainian military.

Neighbors in eastern Ukraine are splitting between those who support Ukraine's government and separatists who want to join with Russia. And if you listen carefully to the insults they are hurling back and forth, you can hear the echoes of history.

With thousands of separatist groups vying for power in eastern Ukraine, many people in the region are not planning to participate in Ukraine's national elections this weekend. And that could hurt the legitimacy of the results.

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